On March 12, 1894, bottled Coca-Cola went on sale.
Since then, this beverage, known as "Fat House Happy Water", has gradually dominated the world, and as a beverage and as a cultural symbol, it has become popular all over the world and has played a huge influence.
In the beginning, Coca-Cola was a detoxification drug.
In 1886, John Pemberton, a genius pharmacist in Atlanta, invented Coca-Cola, but the drink was the drug that pharmacists used to break their addiction. After its development, the original Coca-Cola was sold in pharmacies as a substitute drink for drugs. The "Coca" in Coca-Cola is coca, and from coca can be decomposed the drug cocaine; "Cola" is a cola fruit, and its main ingredient is caffeine.
Pemberton was a gifted pharmacist but not a good businessman, and Coca-Cola sold only 25 bottles in its first year.
Later, Coca-Cola's real father, Asa Kandler, appeared.
The businessman bought all of Coca-Cola's shares for $1,000 and began to transform Coca-Cola.
In the first step, he designed a new flavor ratio from scratch, removed the original cocaine and alcohol components, enhanced the sucrose content and bubble taste, and began to design a unique bottle. On March 12, 1894, the bottled Coca-Cola we are familiar with was officially sold, embarking on the journey of "the strongest king".
Coca-Cola bottle body "evolutionary history"
In an era of food shortages, Coca-Cola was undoubtedly a drink that provided plenty of sugar and energy, and was first welcomed by American soldiers on the battlefield.
From 25 bottles a year to hundreds of millions of bottles a year, this combination of carbon dioxide and sucrose in one of the drinks can achieve such impressive results, I have to say this second step: do marketing.
Seeing that the product was popular with the American military, the Coca-Cola Company printed a pamphlet entitled "The Importance of Completing the Toughest Combat Tasks and Rest", which described in detail that Coca-Cola can reduce the mental stress of soldiers and improve the efficiency of rest, not only as a leisure drink, but a necessity of life, as important as gun and ammunition.
During World War II, American soldiers drank Coke on the battlefield and consumed about 1 billion bottles a year.
In this way, Coca-Cola successfully molded itself into a patriotic, healthy national drink, as a representative of the "American spirit", followed by American soldiers scattered around the world. During World War II, the famous American generals Eisenhower and MacArthur were loyal fans of Coca-Cola.
The third step is to formulate a price policy. This national-grade drink is very inexpensive, delicious and inexpensive, 5 cents, unchanged for decades. From the first Coke sold in the United States in 1894, to the Great Depression, to the two world wars... The unit price is 5 cents, so people in third world countries can also afford to spend. As a result, the breadth of the Coca-Cola market beats similar drinks.
A price tag of five cents for Coca-Cola
In the fourth step, Coca-Cola began to lead the cultural consumer market. While playing the patriotic card and the price card, Coca-Cola has not forgotten to insert a foot in popular culture.
In 1911, Coca-Cola began hiring painters to paint its product logos in white on a red background all over the United States, covering more than five million square feet. In addition, Coca-Cola also spared no expense to hire the most well-known artists of the same era to endorse its own products, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, etc. have appeared in Coca-Cola's advertisements.
Coca-Cola ads
The most absolute thing is that the image of Santa Claus in red Christmas clothes and fat that we see now is fixed by Coca-Cola. Modern art master Andy Warhol put Coca-Cola into his works as a representative of the fast-moving consumer era, so that Coca-Cola can completely become a "representative of American culture".
Coca-Cola defined the image of Santa Claus
However, only taking the US market obviously cannot satisfy the appetite of Coca-Cola commanders. In the 1930s, Coca-Cola set its sights on the world. So, how does Coca-Cola conquer the global market?
In the eyes of Coca-Cola, if marketing can conquer the United States, then marketing can also conquer the world.
However, When Coca-Cola first entered Europe, it encountered Waterloo. For European countries, people believe that red wine is the love, and the taste of Coca-Cola is generally not accepted, because it is neither healthy nor a good refreshment. Even more tragically, Coca-Cola met European nationalism. In that era, every imported commodity that wanted to succeed was met with nationalist resistance, especially from Germany. The angry youth in Germany are very resistant to Coca-Cola, an American import, and there is no shortage of smashing and robbing things, and the German people resist the purchase of Coca-Cola because they are "patriotic".
What to do?
The executives of The German branch of Coca-Cola were also deeply rooted in the essence of marketing at the headquarters, and they hugged the Nazi thighs for the first time.
A bottle opener with Nazi symbols
When Hitler's side face occupied the front page of German newspapers, Coca-Cola spent a huge amount of money to put its own advertisement in the corners of this page; when Hitler's speech flooded the German radio, Coca-Cola inserted its own advertisement in between the Führer's speeches, and even when Hitler proposed "one nation, one empire, one Führer", Coca-Cola changed its slogan to "one nation, one empire, one coke".
Through brand promotion, Coca-Cola successfully bound itself to the Nazis, and successfully reached the point where Germans once thought that Coca-Cola was a national brand in Germany and carefully cared for.
Hitler's "group photo" with Coca-Cola
Later, wherever Germany hit in Europe, Coca-Cola was released, and the set of soups that it had made in the United States was repeated in Germany without changing the medicine, and soon occupied the whole of Europe. In total, Coca-Cola sold more than 10 billion bottles during the war.
After the end of World War II, Coca-Cola further used the Marshall Treaty to aid Western Europe, penetrating the brand more deeply into Europe.
In the middle, because France did not agree to the introduction of Coca-Cola, it once led to the near death of the Marshall Plan. In the end, France did not hold back the pressure and agreed to let Coca-Cola enter. As a result, Coca-Cola has entered thousands of households.
China joined the Coca-Cola family in 1927 and is now the largest exporter of the Coca-Cola Company.
In the 1920s, Coca-Cola promoted posters in Shanghai
Coca-Cola used a four-step alternating strategy to create a powerful business empire. Behind the rise of this business empire, it also reflects the evolution of human culture, and human beings are constantly pursuing spiritual consumption while meeting energy needs.
Evaluation of the past
1) "Coca-Cola is a metaphor for the history of modern capitalism. ”
—The Washington Post
2) "Behind the glitz and bustle, this bubbling brown drink is a bitter and contradictory history. ”
—The Wall Street Journal
3) "The history of mankind does not exist, only the history of all aspects of human life." ”
--Carl Popper